About Us

Restoring Hope to the Orphan

Israel has an orphan crisis.
HaTikva Families equips YOU to address it.
Adopt. Foster. Host. Support.
Everyone can do something.

Our Vision

HaTikva Families equips families to respond to the OVC crisis in Israel through adoption and foster care. Hatikva Families is a department of Hatikva Project.

Children in Israel Today

  • 1 out of every 6 children is considered at-risk, resulting in 432,111 at-risk children in the country.
  • Over 11,410 children have been removed from their homes by the Ministry of Welfare - only 33% are in foster care, the other 67% are housed in institutions.
  • 20,400 OVC live in government institutions; over 1,000 of these children are orphans.
  • Approximately 300 newborn babies are abandoned in hospitals every year.
  • Couples wait an average of 5 years to adopt a child, and only 80 successful adoptions occur each year.

Restoring Hope to the Orphan.

What We Do

HaTikva Families recruits and equips families to host, foster, and adopt through awareness campaigns, conferences, and seminars and provides guidance and support to foster and adoptive families. We also partner with other organizations in our field so our collective efforts will have a greater impact for OVC in Israel.

Research

We compile and stay abreast of current research on adoption, foster care, and child welfare. The research is a basis for directing efforts, highlighting current needs, and assessing actions that will have the greatest impact on the livelihood of OVC in Israel.

Advocacy

We believe that every child deserves a permanent home. We advocate for this right by identifying barriers to adoption and encouraging the implementation of policy to increase adoption in Israel.

Awareness

We raise awareness for the plight of orphans and vulnerable children in Israel and the need for host, foster, and adoptive families through media campaigns, conferences, and speaking engagements.

Recruitment

We recruit families to host, foster, and adopt. We engage families, individuals, volunteers, and local congregations to support OVC and our HaTikva Families

Guidance

We guide families through host, foster, and adoption application procedures, explain the detailed screening process they will undergo, and refer them to the relevant government authorities.

Equipping

We equip families to host, foster, and adopt through an extensive training course on trauma-informed care.

Support

We provide ongoing support to host, foster, and adoptive families through our on-staff social workers, Family Support Network, and financial assistance (when applicable).

Partnership

We partner with other organizations in our field, lending our support with donations, volunteer work, and joint initiatives so our collective efforts will have a greater impact for OVC in Israel.

Meet the Team

Say hello to the HaTikva Families team! We are a dynamic team of professionals from diverse backgrounds in the areas of public health, social work, and more, who are dedicated to melding our talents for the betterment of orphans and vulnerable children in Israel.

Evan Levine

Executive Director
Hatikva Project

Rebecca Rikhi

Manager
Hatikva Families

What We Believe

We believe in the sanctity and protection of human life from conception.

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” Ps. 139:13-16

“This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” Deut. 30:19-20

We believe we are commanded to care for the orphaned and vulnerable child.

“Defend the weak and the fatherless…” Ps. 82:3

“Take up the cause of the fatherless…” Is. 1:17

“And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.” Matt. 18:5

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress…” James 1:27

We believe that every child deserves a permanent and loving family.

“God sets the lonely in families…” Ps. 68:6

We believe that we have been adopted as sons and daughters of God our Father and redeemed of our sins through his son, Yeshua the Messiah.

“For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Yeshua the Messiah, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.” Eph. 1:4-6

“But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” Gal. 4:4-6

“Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me.” Ps. 27:10